The federal government's roads funding package will focus on rural and local roads, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and Regional Services, John Anderson, has confirmed.
The package could be announced as early as today to coincide with Federal Treasurer Peter Costello mid-year economic review statement.
The package will consist of additional funding, over and above the significant federal local roads funding paid directly to local councils each year ($406.5 million in 2000/01).
On Sunday, Prime Minister John Howard acknowledged the need for the government to help upgrade Australia's crumbling local road network.
This has been welcomed by Anderson, who says he is "delighted" that the National Party's continuing advocacy publicly and within the government for a federal local roads funding program is now to pay dividends.
"We have been arguing long and hard that the magnitude of the challenge faced by local government to repair, maintain and upgrade local roads is simply beyond their capacity to pay from their rates base," he says.
"I am looking forward to announcing details of our new rural local roads funding package in the next couple of weeks and what I can reveal at this point is that it will make a real difference."
Anderson says a stronger-than-expected Budget performance, details of which would be unveiled by the Treasurer today, has given the government the scope to make a substantial investment in infrastructure.
"The government has come to the view that at this point in time it is best to use our strong Budget performance to make long-term investments and when it comes to infrastructure, local roads are the number-one priority," he says.
"Nearly everything this country value-adds and exports starts out on a rural road. For the people who use those roads, though, they are important for social and well as economic reasons.
"Many, if not most, were built in the 1950s and 1960s and have well and truly reached their use-by date – they are, in simple terms, broken."
Federal Regional Services and Local Government Minister, Senator Ian Macdonald, adds that local roads funding was identified as a high priority at the Northern Australia Forum held in Katherine last month, and at the earlier Regional Australia Summit.